President Biden shook arms repeatedly Thursday in Israel — ignoring a reported plan for fist bumps throughout his Mideast tour and doubtlessly forcing him to increase his hand Friday to Saudi Arabia’s killer Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.
The president shook arms with at the least a dozen folks at an occasion in Jerusalem the place he obtained Israel’s Medal of Honor — earlier than shaking much more arms whereas greeting US athletes at a global sporting occasion, blowing away pretenses that COVID-19 would restrict his bodily contact with others in the course of the journey.
Biden arrives Friday in Saudi Arabia and can meet with bin Salman because the US seeks higher oil manufacturing to tamp down excessive fuel costs. Biden beforehand tried to sideline the prince after US spy companies decided he ordered the 2018 operation that killed Washington Submit columnist Jamal Khashoggi contained in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
As Biden entered the Israel medal ceremony on Thursday afternoon, he shook arms with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Protection Minister Benny Gantz — sooner or later after arriving in Israel giving preliminary fist bumps, earlier than rapidly reverting to handshakes for former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Gantz.
After getting his medal, Biden shook arms with Israeli President Issac Herzog and was serenaded with a bilingual efficiency of The Beatles’ “Let It Be” in English and Hebrew. He then warmly shook arms with the duo’s male singer whereas his feminine counterpart declined Biden’s prolonged hand and as a substitute bowed.
As he left the medal occasion, Biden shook at the least eight different arms — starting with a girl who had enthusiastically mouthed the phrases to “Let It Be” after which a person seated subsequent to her.
Biden gave Lapid’s hand one other shake earlier than greeting Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III and at the least certainly one of his associates. And in a scene resembling the annual State of the Union handle, different visitors reached in for a squeeze alongside the ceremony’s central aisle — with the US president giving at the least 4 different visitors handshakes as he handed.
Biden then spoke with Herzog and his spouse, Michal Herzog, earlier than coming into his motorcade — clasping arms with the primary girl after greedy her arm and her husband’s shoulders as they walked collectively.
Later within the day, Biden once more shook arms with athletes collaborating in Israel’s Maccabiah video games, the so-called Jewish Olympics, which options delegations from around the globe.
It was unclear what number of arms Biden shook on the occasion’s opening ceremonies as a result of no media outlet instantly printed a pooled video of his greetings.
In line with a print pool report, Biden “shook arms with athletes and supporters who cheered ‘Joe’ and ‘USA'” earlier than telling the group, “I’m so rattling happy with you.”
The White Home hasn’t denied stories that Biden was instructed to provide COVID-19 fist bumps as a substitute of handshakes in his two-country journey to the area.
“We’re in a part of the pandemic now the place we're searching for to scale back contact,” nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan instructed reporters on Air Pressure One on Wednesday earlier than Biden arrived in Israel.
White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned, “we’re attempting to reduce contact as a lot as attainable the place we are able to.”
The notion of fist bumps as a substitute of handshakes was extensively interpreted as a method to keep away from a presidential handshake with bin Salman. Biden, who's quadruple-vaccinated in opposition to the coronavirus, routinely shakes arms at massive and nearly solely mask-free White Home occasions, regardless of a latest improve in COVID-19 infections.
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